Laverockdale House garden

Life is so full at the moment that I'm having trouble keeping up here on this blog. Every day we go on outings as my mother is here and today was no exception. This morning it was Dobbies Garden Centre and this afternoon it was Laverockdale Garden, open under the Gardens of Scotland Scheme.

It's the way the colours go together in different flowerbeds, like you can see above and at the top, that inspire me, in that I capture them in pictures and these pictures in turn form the inspiration for colour shemes in my quilts. Sometimes I add another colour to spice things up a bit as the flowerbeds can be a bit too co-ordinated for my tastes, but usually every large quilt had a garden picture as a starting point.

There is a tremendous water feature in this garden consisting of an actual burn running it which has been dammed and in several places turned into a waterfall or weir. The pond (or rather lake, as it's pretty substantial) is shown above, with the resulting wonderful reflections. And you can also see that it was very busy with visitors. It was the very first time this garden was opened under the Gardens of Scotland Open Scheme so all keen gardeners in and around Edinburgh were keen to take a look, just like us.

Although I enjoyed wondering around the garden, looking at the water and seeing the planting schemes, it's the close-ups that remain my favourites. The photographs where you can see each and every tiny detail, are what I use my camera most for and I'm so pleased with the macro zoon setting, which does a great job each and every time. Above it shows an achillea.

Of course I could not resist a rose picture, specially as most of ours are now over so it was a real treat to discover this pink gorgeous one still flowering her head off against the wall.

And finally a portrait of Helenium Moerheim Beauty, a dark and mysterious flower, which made me long to make a dark quilt using rich colours. That's another one for the list!